Acedia et Industria
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and thirty-six:  sins and virtues 4 of 7  It's becoming increasingly obvious to her how no one is going to help her but herself.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 25th cycle. Now cycle 26!_

**SINS + VIRTUES SET:** _Day 4 of 7: Acedia (Sloth) + Industria (Diligence)_

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><p><strong>"Acedia et Industria"<br>Will & Rachel **

Most days, Rachel felt like she was the only one who cared about what would become of her, where her life was taking her, where it had always been taking her, from the start… Celebrity, stardom… All this effort, while someone, whose name would remain unmentioned though blatantly obvious, at least to her, seemed determined to continue putting roadblocks in her path.

She didn't always see him this way, and by this it was meant that, on occasion, he did genuinely seem to want to help her. And fool she was, she'd always go and believe him again, because for some reason it did make sense. She'd get lulled back in and things would seem fine for a while, but then… then came the slap in the face, and she couldn't believe she had let herself fall for his tricks once again.

Maybe they'd say she was overreacting, but she knew she wasn't. No, how could she be overreacting when he just kept doing this to her, over and over again. He knew how talented she was. Yes, that had to be it. She had talent, she had drive, and she would get out of this town because of it, something he was never able to do himself. She knew she sure would hate the guts of whoever had that chance if for some twisted reason her own chance was taken from her… Just thinking about it, she got a little dizzy…

Still there she was, day in and day out, completely dedicated to her craft, her goals… and what was he doing? He was just letting it go to waste, throwing solos left and right when he should have been throwing them right at her.

It probably didn't sound fair to the others, but when they worked as hard as she'd worked her whole life, then they could say something about it, and only then. Until that moment came, which she highly doubted, then they had to see where she was standing, and how absolutely unfair this situation had been to her.

Now here they were, heading into their second run at Sectionals, and she was ready. She had been working for this moment ever since their embarrassing defeat at Regionals, at the hands of Vocal Adrenaline. She had worked it all out, all in the intention to make sure they got to return and defend their honor… her honor… She was ready, and it was going to be spectacular, it was…

Sam and Quinn? No… No, that wasn't what she'd planned. He couldn't honestly be ignoring this guaranteed win she was handing him…

But it got worse. Oh, it only ever got worse. On top of that duet, he was handing the solo to Santana, of all people. After everything that had happened, this only twisted the knife. What had she done, what could she have possibly done to deserve this?

Well, she'd trusted him again, for one. For that, she supposed, she only had herself to blame. But the rest… All of this, she couldn't let it go without saying something, doing something. She would protest for her talent. If he was so intent on silencing her, then she wouldn't stand in his way anymore. She would be so quiet, so very quiet, and at first he would just ignore it. But only at first.

After that first little while though, oh… He'd start realizing just what he had done. But she wouldn't give him the satisfaction, oh no. If he wanted her to rip away the tape he might as well have put over her mouth himself, then he'd have to prove to her that her trust in him wasn't in vain anymore, that finally things would really change, and he would stop putting blocks in her wheels.

The way she saw it, she had to have a plan, to know exactly what to do and when to do it, to make sure she got where she wanted to be, and at the moment, he was just lazying about, squandering her talent. If she let him derail her any further, she would never be able to get back on track and she would miss her chance. And then she'd be as good as done, as good as… him.

She'd be stuck in this place, wondering what could have been. She wouldn't have any hopes anymore, she would have lost her moment, all for the inactivity of someone standing in her way…

That wasn't going to happen. Not on her watch.

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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